In a significant development that has sent ripples through the crypto community, a whale executed a massive shake-up in their XRP holdings, transferring millions of dollars worth of XRP coins in the last 24 hours.
The development indicates a surge in XRP whale activity while sparking speculation about its potential impact on the altcoin’s price and the crypto market.
Whale Transfers 17 Million Worth of XRP to Bitstamp
An anonymous whale on Tuesday moved 27.7 million XRP tokens from an undisclosed wallet—worth nearly $17.26 million at current market prices—to Europe-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. The transaction was flagged by blockchain tracker Whale Alert. However, CoinGape couldn’t confirm whether the whale in question was an individual or a company.
Furthermore, on Jan 1, at least 800 million XRP tokens were locked in escrow at Ripple – the company behind the XRP cryptocurrency – according to Whale Alert. Since Ripple controls more than 50% of XRP’s total supply, many argue that Ripple’s blockchain is more centralized than that of its peers.
The enormous transaction, involving over 27 million XRP tokens, is not an isolated incident. Whale Alert has flagged several such transactions involving XRP in the past, with whales offloading a significant amount of their XRP holdings last year. Last December, CoinGape reported that whales relocated over 70 million XRP tokens, valued at over 45 million.
XRP Price Surges 2%, Is $0.64 Within Reach?
The influx of XRP tokens into crypto exchanges signals that the investors are planning to sell the asset. However, that remains unclear as it’s difficult to ascertain what happened to the asset once it reached the exchange. At press time, the XRP price stood at $0.634, up more than 2% in the last 24 hours. It could be reasoned that XRP whales are on the move to lock in profits amid the recent price rally.
Notably, XRP is trading well below its all-time high of $3.84, a feat it achieved in Jan 2018. Meanwhile, the trading volume in the last 24 hours has surged by a whopping 46% to $1.12 billion. The market cap, currently standing at nearly $34.3 billion is also up by 2.19 % in the last 24 hours.
